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About this project

When The Heart Betrays The Blood is a 120 page, black and white graphic novel that is ready for printing...with your help!

"When The Heart Betrays The Blood is the
story of a young Jewish girl’s escape from sexual abuse at the hands of her
uncle via her strange relationship with the son of a white supremacist. Steeped in a sort of “one on one” ethical
reasoning the book questions traditional concepts of social identity and
rejects them as insufficient signifiers of individual ethical standing!" - A blurb I wrote for the back cover.

Structurally, When The Heart Betrays The Blood is unique in that it isn't a standard panel and word balloon comic format. WTHBTB consists of wordless illustrations and segregated pages of text formatted like a screenplay.

Image...

...Text!

I chose this format for two reasons. One, I like the way it engages the reader and gives him/her a lot of space to project his/her own thoughts onto the page. Two, I'm an admirer of the great playwright Bertolt Brecht and his theories of creating distance between the audience and artwork so the audience doesn't get absorbed into the fantasy of the story and think actively about the sociopolitical meaning of the piece.

PDF version notwithstanding, this piece has always been envisioned as a physical book, and since this is the first ever printing I wanted there to be something special about the edition. So this first run of WTHBTB will be printed by Inkworks press, a democratically run, certified green, union shop. Given the politically ambiguous nature of the book's characters I wanted to make a tangible, real world gesture of support for social justice, responsibility, and left wing political idealism.

A detail of what the linework looks like up close.

I've set the fundraising goal at $2,100, but the more money I raise the more copies get printed. So, if we raise past the mark I have some tantalizing stretch rewards in mind!

An admonition: this book contains material that may not be suitable for all ages and which some readers may find offensive. Caveat Lector!

Risks and challenges

The only major ambiguities are the time it might take to collect the pledge money, the time it takes Inkworks to print the edition, the time it takes them to ship the edition to me, and the time it takes me to ship the edition to all of you. I think I've allowed for plenty of time for all parties with the delivery estimates i quoted with the rewards, but, as I hope we all understand, sometimes things take more time than we anticipate.

I've been in touch with the printer, the book's laid out in Indesign, the PDF version is ready; it's all there except the funds!